Four Weeks Old

Can you believe its been 4 weeks since this little girl joined our family? We really want to get her on a better schedule so we can get real sleep at night, but I like when she takes long naps during the day too much! I can actually get a nap, or clean the apartment, or read a book.

Poor baby has had a bad rash on her bum for a little over a week now :-( Desitin was not helping, so I called the Dr. and he said to get two special creams and use them, stop using wipes and just use wet paper towels, and soak her bum in a bath with baking soda 1-2 times a day. Too bad she HATES the water.

Greg has been SO busy with school and work and his calling in the branch, we feel like we never see each other now. Unless you count me looking at him while Im awake nursing 4 times a night. We picked up an OAT prep book the other day, something else to take up his time :-P

Im having a brain fart trying to come up with mutual activities for my Young Women. Anyone have any suggestions? Its hard because we only have two girls so we cant do anything that requires a big group, which most fun activities do.

P.s. Nicole Richie had her baby, finally. She named him Sparrow James Midnight Madden
Her daughter is Harlow Winter Kate Madden.
Greg and decided our names weren't as cool as the Maddens so we came up with some new names for our family:

Greg Blue Spruce Brandt
Daisy Thyme Dani Brandt
And Tatum Ruffles Adventure Brandt

Blue Bow

I thought I'd post this pic of me and my Tatum girl, since it was one of the only days I've actually gotten dressed and ready for the day :-P And I loved this blue bow in her hair.

A few weekends ago we went to the new Wasatch High School grand opening/open house extravaganza, it was really nice. LuAnn is going to be teaching a few classes there so she was there to give us the grand tour. Half way through said tour she received her very own classroom! In the PE building! (She teaches Spanish). They built this brand new school with all the bells and whistles, but don't have enough classrooms for all the teachers and classes. What is school for anyways?

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well my b-day was on Aug 31st, but I haven't gotten around to posting my awesome day! Actually it was pretty uneventful. Other then the fact that I turned 22...

Tatum and I had a leisurely morning at home waiting for Greg to get done with school and work. Becca and Lauren cameover with birthday soup and salad from Zupas, yuuuuumm! Then when G got home he took me to the Quicksilver store so I could get a birthday hoodie! Yay! I love it! He also took me to A&W for dinner and a root beer float, and then we rented 17 Again- so funny!

My mom and sister got to come visit us and meet Tate and they brought me this cute apron (since I am such an amazing chef) and new curtains that make my apartment look 10x better!We also hit the mall and got the cute jeans pictured above. I have been waiting so long to be able to fit into jeans again :-)We went to the new Texas Roadhouse in Lehi for my birthday dinner while they were here. Of course there are no pictures of the birthday girl there, but we had to get one of Tate and her Mimi and Great-Aunt Val!Then over Labor Day weekend my Dad and Bea came out for their visit! We had a fun "hike" up to Bridal Veil Falls, and then even ventured further up the path! There really wasn't much else to see, but it was good to get some exercise. And we wore the doggies out so they wouldn't be restless in their hotel room :-)

Dad took me to Barnes and Noble for some birthday books! I love bookstore shopping. I got a few new reads, including The Time Travelers Wife- which I am really excited to read but sort of wanted to see the movie first. I usually like the movie better if I see it before I know the real story from the book, but I dont think it will be out on video soon enough. And I will not be going to the theater anytime soon with a baby. I hate it when people do that.

I didn't get any pictures of their trip on my camera, but I know my Dad took about a million of his little grand baby! She's so cute he couldn't resist :-)

And here's a picture from today. She looks so comfortable, don't you think?

We're back

Back to posting on our normal blog... I guess this is our normal life now! We have had lots of visitors, and lots of grandparents come into town to help us get situated with this new little girl, but today we're on our own.

Tate is getting so big already! She definitely feels heavier and looks longer, though she still doesn't fit into any newborn sized clothes.

We usually spend a few hours every day doing the above picture. It must be the most comfortable position for her because on mom and dad she will always fall asleep like this.

I still cant believe shes really here, and that she is my daughter. You'd think getting up 5 times a night and changing 15+ diapers a day would make you feel like a parent, but it just seems like a dream I guess.

Winner

Here's the dish: I've been secretly having a competition with Nicole Ritchie to see who would have their baby first. As far as rumors go she was/is due the end of August, so was I.

She even had the advantage of it being her 2nd pregnancy, and possibly twins, which are both supposed to come faster then your first.

Sorry Nicole! I win, you lose!

She doesn't know this yet, but I gracefully had my little Tatum on Tuesday the 18th!

Better luck next time Nic :-P

(for all the details go to my baby blog babymama09.blogspot.com)

Ghosts of Julys Past

I was looking through our old blog entrees.... so fun to do if you are bored and your hubby is taking a nap! I thought Id take a brief walk down blog memory lane and see what we've been up two these last few July's:

July 2008I was blonde. We went out for $1.50 cheesecake celebration night with some of our friends from workWe had just got our little buddy Jerome :-) He was so cool/cute! I miss himWe took an awesome trip down to Destin Florida with my family. So so so fun! I love the beach!

July 2007We did alot of hiking around Utah this year

Lake Blanche with Brady and Linds

Baby Raquel was born, first one of our friends to have a kid!

She was so cute! And still is. They are expecting girl #2 sometime later this yearWe drove up to Lovell and Yellowstone to visit Grandma Cox with Ry-Pie

July 2006

We had been dating about 7 months and Greg got to meet my WHOLE family! So exciting :-)
We went to Lagoon to bond.

Now im all fat and ready to pop this baby out. I wonder where we'll be and what we'll be doing next July. Tatum will be almost 1!! Crazy

Youth Conference 2009

Yesterday our branch (yes a branch in orem ut, what the heck) had the opportunity to go on a "temple tour"

That's what I called it anyway.

We started at the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house and got to see the beautiful new building.Then we drove the 13 minutes over to the Jordan River Temple to do baptisms. I had never been to this one and it is gorgeous on the outside!! I loved loved loved all the trees and flowers and greenery everywhere. It was like you were walking through the Garden of Eden. Of course the inside was beautiful too. Its a pretty busy temple I guess, we had to sit and wait for 1 1/2 hours to do baptisms there were so many youth there. It was really nice to be able to sit and ponder and watch all the awesome youth do the baptismal ordinances though. I admit I did take a little snooze while waiting for our group to finally get up to the font, but I blame that on the pregnancy :-)

Next we crossed the highway and drove up to the new Draper Temple. I got to walk through it during its open house a few months ago, and I think it is the most pretty temple from the inside that I have been too. All of the dark wood and huge windows with lots of natural light coming in is awesome. There font and chapel have three enormous windows that take up an entire wall and make it feel so bright and warm, I love it! I was happy to sit in that room for another hour while our girls did the work.

(Didnt get a picture at Draper, dangit!)

Then we headed back to our building in Orem and had 5 buck pizza and Testimony Meeting. We had a really great day, and I cant believe we are lucky enough to be able to see three different temples all in the same day. Im greatful for the work we were able to do, and the Spirit we felt throughout our tour.

Sierra Turning Blonde

I deliberately gave Sierra a very high maintenance color so that she'll have to come visit me again SOON for a retouch... muah ha ha. I had her trapped in my chair for 3 hours.

Think we got enough foils in there?!

She's never really colored her hair before, so I figured go big or go home.

She looks really cute as a blonde! I dont have the greatest before and after pics but this will have to do for now:

We put in 3 shades of blonde and a 2nd brown to add to her natural and it really looks awesome! She needs to take a better after picture for me so I can show off my work.

It always looks better in person though

Lucy's View of 4th of July Morning

I think from now on all family activites should be documented by 4 year olds. You really get a feel for the morning we spent together :-P

Happy Father's Day